Disastrous Day 1 for U.S. tennis a reminder of how quickly things can change
A few months ago, on home soil, U.S. tennis was having a moment.
At the US Open, even with Serena Williams outside the fray, it was the American women who shone brightest. Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe, Madison Keys, and eventual champion Sloane Stephens combined to give the tournament its first all-American semifinal in nearly four decades. After years of unevenness for the nation's women beyond Serena and Venus, and uncertainty about who would eventually take the torch from them, the next generation - Stephens, Keys, and Vandeweghe were all 25 or younger - was finally coming into its own.
Even before those four made their marks, there was Jennifer Brady breaking through to the fourth round, Shelby Rogers and wild card Sofia Kenin making the third, and Nicole Gibbs putting a major scare in then-No. 1 Karolina Pliskova in the second.
On the men's side, the Americans were decidedly more underwhelming (as has been the case since the turn of the millennium) but Sam Querrey still gave them their first quarterfinalist in six years, while John Isner made his typical third-round run. (Jack Sock was bounced early, but would add to the good times a couple months later by winning the Paris Masters - the first American man to win a Masters event in over seven years - and qualifying for the year-end ATP Finals.)
But things change quickly in tennis, results and form and narrative often swinging wildly from week to week. Day 1 at the Australian Open on Monday was a jarring reminder, as the Americans' Flushing Meadows dream turned into a Melbourne nightmare. Twelve of the 15 Americans in action lost, including nine of the 10 women (only Gibbs advanced), and all five seeded players.
Stephens, victor of the most recent major tournament, was bounced in the first round by a game Zhang Shuai, failing to serve out the match in the second set after dominating the first, and losing steam rapidly in the third. It was Stephens' eighth straight loss since winning the US Open, and she looked to have nowhere near the mental and physical fortitude that propelled her to dizzying heights last summer. She looked sluggish and irritable in the deciding set, and her self-belief seemed to evaporate after she lost the second-set breaker.
Stephens admitted to not feeling 100 percent physically after a short offseason, and said the heightened profile and expectations that have come with being a Slam champion have been difficult to adjust to (which may help explain why it's been so common to see players flop immediately after a major breakthrough).
"It's been quite the experience, but I think that, you know, when you do something great like that, a lot is expected of you," she told reporters in her postmatch presser. "Whether I wanted that or not, that's just kind of - that's what comes with the territory. I don't regret it. I just think - like I said, there is roller coasters and you go through ups and downs in periods of your career that things like this happen. But winning the US Open was the best thing that happened in my tennis career."
Williams lost mainly as a consequence of a hard-luck draw, getting resurgent, red-hot youngster Belinda Bencic in the first round. Maybe it was karma after a cupcake draw helped Venus make the final in Melbourne a year ago. The 37-year-old wasn't her sharpest, but the 20-year-old Bencic - who cracked 32 winners to just 12 unforced errors - didn't give her much breathing room.
"I don't think I played a bad match," Williams said. "She just played above and beyond. I just have to give her credit for that."
Some of the results were wholly expected and explicable, like qualifier Kevin King's loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, or Irina Falconi's loss to Daria Gavrilova, or Kenin's loss to the surging Julia Goerges. Some were harder to explain, like Sock's desultory defeat at the hands of Yuichi Sugita, or Isner's loss to 78th-ranked journeyman Matthew Ebden, or Vandeweghe's collapse against Timea Babos - who was previously 0-16 against top-10 opponents. (Vandeweghe at least had the excuse that she'd been battling the flu in the run-up to the tournament, but there was no excuse for this.)
In any case, the American horror story that played out on the cerulean courts Monday won't necessarily be predictive, and doesn't really signify anything other than the fact that strange things happen in tennis sometimes and every season, every tournament, every opening round is different. This one just happened to be different in the most dispiriting way imaginable for the U.S. contingent in Australia.
"Last year is last year," Venus explained after her loss. "This is, like, a new year. You can't live in the previous year. It's impossible."